Data over Cable Service Interface Specification (“DOCSIS”) is an international telecommunications standard that enables implementation of high-speed data transfer over an existing cable TV (“CATV”) network. DOCSIS may be employed by cable operators to provide Internet access over their existing hybrid fiber-coaxial (“HFC”) infrastructure and may provide a variety of options available at Open Systems Interconnection (“OSI”) layers 1 and 2, i.e., the physical layer and data link layer.
DOCSIS has enabled cable operators to widely deploy high-speed data services on CATV systems. Such data services allow subscriber-side devices, such as personal computers and the like, to communicate over an ordinary CATV network. A Cable Modem Termination System (“CMTS”), which in some embodiments may be implemented within a Converged Cable Access Platform (“CCAP”), connects the CATV network to a wide area network (“WAN”), such as the Internet. DOCSIS specifies that cable modems (“CMs”) obtain upstream bandwidth according to a request-grant scheme. A cable modem sends a bandwidth allocation request to the CMTS when subscriber devices need to send traffic upstream into the cable network. The CMTS grants these requests using bandwidth allocation MAP messages to allocate a transmission timeslot to a particular service flow. As with any system that serves consumers, optimizing speed, latency, processing time, synchronization, etc., presents a significant challenge to system designers, network architects, and engineers alike.